I'm an Emergency Services Director. People have been deployed to the East Coast in preparation of opening shelters. We also have many people on standby in case feeding and other services are needed. Hopefully no one needs us, but if you do, we are ready.

Between the Storm and the football, this weekend has been crap. At the Red Cross we stress being prepared. Try to compile a kit, have a plan, and stay informed. If it is too late for that, or not possible, LISTEN TO YOUR EMERGENCY RADIO STATIONS AND FOLLOW THEIR SUGGESTIONS!

Those stations will keep everyone updated on what is going on, what dangers are out there, and where shelters and food are located should anyone need it. I have posted a link with relevent preparedness info concerning different types of disasters. Stay safe out there people!

It pertains to surge dangers only. Not related to where high winds might turn trees and scaffolding into projectiles. I'm not in an evacuation zone, but when there are high winds, they find my street. And all that renovation hardware covering the building directly across the street from my windows suggests I shouldn't spend much time on my couch or computer for the next couple days.

It's very true, there were 20 people waiting for gas Friday night by my work and the grocery store was out of water. I bought some canned goods and some flashlight batteries, that's it, but then again I am in an apartment so I don't have any property to worry about.

Not all storms of the same category have the same impact. All the category refers to is sustained wind speed. The major issue with Sandy will be storm surge. 6 to 11 feet in New York harbor ON TOP OF a full moon high tide. Don't think this storm will be strong, just because it won't have major hurricane wind speed? For reference, this will be the storm with the lowest eye atmospheric to EVER make landfall north of Cape Hatteras. It's not the wind that will make this storm have major impacts, it's the rain, surge, size and duration.

You obviously haven't been to NY and seen just how close the city is to the waterline. I mean, a bad rain storm causes problems. A slow-moving tropical storm that can drop 7+ inches of rain in a day will absolutely flood portions of lower Manhattan, and then the storm surge just adds to it. Honestly, in some respects a faster-moving hurricane would be better because it would at least move out quickly. With this storm, it seems set to dumb a bunch of rain on the eastern seaboard while also being quite windy.

It's projected to hit NEW YORK CITY man....NEW YORK. You know...where 90% of our news media lives so therefore THIS MIGHT BE THE BIGGEST STORM EVER IN THE HISTORY OF STORMS AND IS THE BIGGEST OF BIG DEALS AND YOU NEED TO BE AFRAID....VERY AFRAID.

The actual event will be NOTHING compared to the inevitable movie depiction. It will star George Clooney....and maybe Mark Wahlberg. Well probably not Mark Wahlberg, but somebody just as cool as Mark Wahlberg, but definately Clooney and it will be EPIC!!!!

It's two cold fronts hitting each other and in 25 years of modeling they've never seen the like. There are 14 million people in its path and the region is not used to dealing with this sort of thing, not to mention the temperature of the storm presenting all sorts of unknowns. Let's give the East Coast Bias Bugaboo a break for a few days and hope all of our friends and relatives and fellow fans and countrymen make it through safe.

It's actually one coldfront merging with an extratropical cyclone termed a Nor'easter. It's significant since usually a hurricane undergoes recurvature and bends off to the east into the Atlantic Ocean, feeding off latent heat from the Gulf Stream. In this scenario, the low pressure system is going to retrograde westward over Pennsylvania before exiting east along the New England states, therefore impacting millions of additional people with significant precipitation and winds that threaten to cut power from residents for weeks.

(I may or may not have modified that for dramatic effect- I was here in 97 when we had 22 inches of snow and the Chinese restaurants were still open as people were pulling kids on sleds down Broadway since NYC was shut down to automobiles)

Its all about what you are used to. we deal with hurricanes about as well as you would deal with a big snowstorm. And there is some real danger simply because people up here don't do the simple things to prepare (and buildings are not made with these type of things in mind)

I was not trying to be critical. If you grew up in PA, I have no doubt that you have handled big snowstorms.

My point was only that what is a big deal and what is not is to a great deal influenced by your level of comfort and familiarity the thing.

I am watching the news right now and seeing a bunch of idiots standing on a beach in NJ ignoring the police advising them to evacuate because they are enjoying watching the record high surf crashing into the rocks. I am guessing these are not actions that you would typically see from people familiar with the dangers of even "mild" hurricanes. (then again, idiots do exist everywhere)

and agree whole heartedly. I live in a place that gets lots of snow, rain and wind with the occasional hurricane. Each year during March break our family would drive down South to Florida for vacation. On the way we would almost always hit at least one freak snow fall in an area that doesn't usually have it. It was like driving through Ghost towns because no one new how to deal with it. There would be cars in ditches everywhere and this would be in conditions we would drive in on a regular basis back home.

Also related to your post would be the last pretty big hurricane to actually hit our twon was when I was in High School. Two guys in my grade and their girl friends went to the light house to watch the waves crashing against the rocks and the two girls got swept in and drowned. They did this while the radio was constantly telling people they should remain away from coastal areas...

Anyway, I agree thatit really is more about hwat you're used to dealing with that impacts your outlook on a situation, and though that one poster was used to snow, I have seen people in Florida trying to cope with freak snowfalls and they fare far worse that northern foke coping with hurricanes in my experience.

Also in South Florida, but I don't agree with you. This won't be like our storms, but in some ways will be worse. This storm will be all about rain and surge, rather than wind. A big part of the issue with the storm is the geomorphology of where this storm will hit, which will probably massively magnify the storm surge on the northeast side, because (1) full moon high tide at landfall and (2) landfall projects just south of the New York Bight, which will push all of the water into the New York Bight and the only place all that water can go is into New York Harbor and Long Island Sound.

I understand that you're saying that we are better prepared for these storms, and I agree, but this is a totally different animal that even we would not be prepared for, even recognizing that it is only a Cat 1:

"This afternoon's 3:30 pm EDT H*Wind analysis from NOAA's Hurricane Research Division put the destructive potential of Sandy's winds at a modest 2.8 on a scale of 0 to 6. However, the destructive potential of the storm surge was record high: 5.8 on a scale of 0 to 6. This is a higher destructive potential than any hurricane observed since 1969, including Category 5 storms like Katrina, Rita, Wilma, Camille, and Andrew."

Here in Vermont I still see FEMA trucks driving around dealing with the mess, and there have been numerous money drives to help finance rebuilding homes, businesses and infrastructure that were lost as a result of babbling brooks turned into raging rapids. Thankfully not many lives were lost, at least.

I don't mind having new roads in places, but there was plenty of destruction as a result of Irene that can't be undone. After seeing that firsthand, I'm OK with a hurricane "letting me down."

I had a colleague whose house on Long Island was nearly hit by a huge tree branch and who couldn't get to the city for about a week because all of the train lines were covered with fallen debris. And people were without power in CT, NY, and NJ for quite some time. Sure, it wasn't Stormpocalypse, but people freak the balls out about snowfall in parts of the country that would make northerners laugh. It's all about how you can handle the situation and how bad it can be relative to those expectations.

The areas it affected it affected with mucho damage. Some folks who live on the harbor went to their country cottage a bit upstate. Big mistake. No trees falling on the harbor, but lots of them falling on houses and cars and power lines where trees actually exist. (Or existed, I should say.)

Apparently, Sandy is huge enough that I was just called by my own manager asking about my availability for storm duty here in Michigan this week. We're supposed to get 40+ MPH gusts Monday night and into Tuesday, enhanced some by the outer reaches of Sandy, We're expecting scattered outages from wind and general nastiness here, but a mere shadow of what they will supposedly see on the East Coast. That's a big storm.

Old Market is nice but it probably rolls up the sidewalks about 5 pm on a Sunday night, I'm sorry to say. There is a casino in Council Bluffs, and if you are there during the daytime there is a great railroad museum (Union Pacific) there too. In Omaha the Joslyn is really impressive. Not sure if it closes on Mondays like so many museums do.

If a storm developed that threatened to literally wipe South Dakota off the map the evening news would probably run it as their third lead behind some election news and the latest Lyndsay Lohen adventures.

But also, there are like 800,000 people in South Dakota. The island of Manhattan alone has 1.6 million people living on it, and large parts of it are less than 3 feet above sea level.

There is also the whole issue of how this affects wall street and the headquarters of the various major companies that exist in NY.

"East coast bias" in sports is a real issue because there is nothing about NY sports teams that makes them more important than other teams. But there are a lot more people and critical institutions on the east coast than in some other areas of the country, so yes, things that affect NY have a disproportionate affect on the rest of the country. That is not bias, it is just the way things are.

And I have never known the news not to sensationalize a natural disaster anywhere in the country for the sake of ratings.

I get the whole bitching about the East Coast bias (I grew up in MI), but this IS a big deal. I mean, it is basically going to run up from DC to Boston and hit every sity in-between. It already killed 60 people, and whole I'm sure there won't be massive casualties, it is still a very dangerous storm. And with respect to other states, I remember a whole bunch of stories in the summer about heat waves and winter stories of massive snow storms in remote outposts of USA that still received a good deal of media coverage. There as 60 million people who will be affected by this weather - 1 in 5 Americans. I'm sorry that the middle of the country isn't going to experience 50+ mph winds and heavy rain for 2 days, but I'm sure there will be some random flooding of the Mississippi River in a year or two that will dominate the news if that makes you feel better.

Jeff Master's (Michigan Man) blog has a good run down of what to expect and why you should be concerned. Overall they do a good job of covering things on that site. www.weatherunderground.com. He is estimating a 50 percent chance that the storm will flood the NYC subway system.

I'm about 30 minutes West of NYC. Gotta say I'm kinda nervous. It's not like it's going to blow through and hit hard. It's going to sit here and just pound us for like 36 hours. Be safe anyone in this area.

Hoping this storm is just bringing a lot of scary speculation. An 11 foot storm surge is a big problem in NYC. They should probably be doing more to prepare to protect the city rather than simply evacuating.

I do not know if this is still the case, but as of 2000, NYC was the only city without an emergency disaster plan- apparently all cities are required to have one filed describing how they will deal with major disasters and handle evacuation etc. However with Manhattan having 2 million or so people and only 10 exits, no one could figure out a realistic plan, so they eventually gave up- and got an official waiver allowing them to not have a plan.

And remember, when the super-cold front starts to descend from the upper atmosphere and chase you through the streets of NY and the library, run as fast as you can, because YOU CAN outrun it. Otherwise, you'll be frozen solid, instantly. That's serious, dude, serious.

Glad to see that New Jersey isn't screwing around. Evacuation statement from NWS in New Jersey:

"If you are reluctant [to evacuate], think about your loved ones, think about the emergency responders who will be unable to reach you when you make the panicked phone call to be rescued, think about the rescue/recovery teams who will rescue you if you are injured or recover your remains if you do not survive."

"This afternoon's 3:30 pm EDT H*Wind analysis from NOAA's Hurricane Research Division put the destructive potential of Sandy's winds at a modest 2.8 on a scale of 0 to 6. However, the destructive potential of the storm surge was record high: 5.8 on a scale of 0 to 6. This is a higher destructive potential than any hurricane observed since 1969, including Category 5 storms like Katrina, Rita, Wilma, Camille, and Andrew."

We are right on the coast in NOva Scotia and I am looking out of my office window right now and the habour is litterally right across the street. They still aren't clear what we are in store for here, but if we get any kind of a storm surge here with the tides, my office building will be under water for sure. I guess we'll just have to wait and see and mean while, head inland to the cottage where I can run everything on my generator.

The weather message for my office said we we open today. My company is run by a Nazi regime. So I called my boss and said that I'm not coming in. He said "Oh, is everything ok?" Okay! No it's got nothing to do with a hurricane, mass transit shutdown, national guard mobilized, the thought of a wind gust blowing my car off the road into a lake that wasn't there yesterday. No I just needed a "me" day. Unfreakin' real.